The Sun. — London, England, 1818-01-02 00:00:00

CERTIFICATED CONVEYANCERS. FOR T'llE SUN. MR. EPITOR,—As you have admitted - into your --'lournal a paper upon the. question between At 'willies and 'Certificated Conveyancers, 1 claim from your impartiality admission for the 'follow.; ing reply : The writer of that paper certainly displays a -most happy dexterity in the use of words. I t arti fice and sophistry could delude'the intelligent part of the British Public, and more especially the i fish Legislature, - then-the talents, and even the present arguments, athat writer might establish the case of his party. But there are such things as reason, common sense, and equity, and to those I shall appeal. - This advocate 'of his party among the Attor- Isles deals in assumptions and assertions with ad mirable freedom ; grant him his premises, acrd his conclusions stem to follow with axiomatic force. ne assumes that the Attornies are all men of in tegrity and skill, and that they generally under stand the principles of conveyancing. But I would. ask him, in the face of the public (fur really on this occasion we must use the argnment ad verecundiam), whether he believes this to be the fact ? flas he never known or heard of in stances in which the professifenal character has been degraded by ignorance and turpitude ? And will he venture to affirm that a thorough or com petent knowledge of the science of conveyancing can generally be attained in an Attorney's office ? imagine that, if lie should lint readily perceive the unfairness of characterizing bodies of men by a reference to a small minority of individuals, he would feel that in the case before us this ground is full of peril to his party ; and 1 presume he is aware that the science of conveyancing, in all its branches, is quite sufficient of itself to engage th e undivided attention and talents of any man, and that the most cautious, respectable, and skilful Attornies apply for assistance in all the most dif ficult parts of that business to Conveyancers hi London, who may be, or may not be, at the bar, anal who entered as Members of an Inn of Court, in the same manner as the body, of Conveyancers against whom this writer would excite an unjust •and illiberal odium. Yet, if his assertions a n d as sumptions had the force of proofs, and the merit of truths, his oponents (or rather those whom he , so liberal)Y attacks) must shrink from the contest, snider a sense of delingnency and dishonour. B u t the small body of Certificated Conveyancers (amounting to about 200 in the velio;e kingdom, of whom nearly half reside in London) repel, with a praper feeling, and are prepared to refute, these imputations'upon their general character. 1 shall very briefly observe here, that regulations exist, and are enforced, to prevent the intrusion of persons not respectable as Members of any'of the Four Inns of Court ; that though the charge upon admission is only between 301. and 401. yet there is an annual charge of 61. or 71. ever after wards, for dues to the Inn of Court, and that to a student at Chambers the expense for instruction is trot much less than 1501. per annum : that skill and integrity being the only tneang , generally to be depended upon for success in basinesS, a fair reasoner Would infer that Conveyancers, like other men, would con' Willy act with due Attention to this maxim, and would not rashly venture upon the practice of a difficult profession, imposing upon their employers, anti hazarding their own inte rests, with the furniture only of a desk, an ink horn, and a quire of paper, as our ingenious At torney wittily expresses it ; and finally, I appeal to facts, and I challenge the Attornies to a trial ,of the qualifications and comparative merits of the parties in this dispute. I have spoken of the argument ad verecundiam, but perhaps rather hastily, in reference to my op ponent, , who, with exquisite modesty, alleges, and attempts to persuade his yeaders, that he is advo cating, not the interests of his profession, but those of the Public ! ! !—Disinterested and noble minded men !—Disdaining to take advantage of the misfortunes and errors and passions of man kind, and 'lamenting that the incapacity of Con veyancers should increase their business and their profits by committing blunders which Attornies alone can mend ! ! !—A satirical spirit might sug gest that the consideration that Attornies can mend their own blunders, or the blunders of their branch of the profession, is not very consoling, sinless accompanied with an assurance of a gralui- Loud exercise of , their repairing talents.. In plain seriousness, however, the motives of these "Gen denten may be partly estimated from their pro- cecdings during the last Session of Parliament.— They then attempted to obtain the sanction of the Legislature to a measure of almost unexampled iniquity. They could not prove that the Cettiti cated Conveyancers at large ar e chargeable with - • •••:—. in:abaci'ty or want - otintegrny and rtspectabnity; 'they 'wouril not dare to attempt the prorif did not prove tha't any number of instances of incompetency and unfitness for their profession existed 'among the 'Conveyancers sufficient to for legislative interference. They sptiined the principle, essential to justice, that all Penal anal Restrictive Laws ought to be prospective in their operation.—They proposed no measure - having the semblance of fairness and utility, such as, that all persons, Attiirnies and othe.rs, beginning thereafter to practise Conveyancing, should `pass fin examination. They Were not Content with 2narding rigidly, and narrowing to an absurd de-• gree, the boundaries of conveyancing' in future. :Int they required, that by a law with - an ex post facto operation, pkn.sons who, within a given period before their adinission to an Inn of Court, bad been engaged in certain pur suits or lines of business (all of them assuredly not discreditable), though ;hey might have been established in practice for many years with unimpeachable integrity ; though their attainments might be of the highest order ; though with fam•lies they might depend upon thei'r business solely for support ;—yet that by this law, for the delinquency of their original occupation, they •shonld be expelled from their profession, and degraded, and ruined r—and this in a free commercial country ;—in the face of the British Constitution ;—and in the face of existing laws by which the present Conveyancers are ex pressly sanctioned ;—and called for by men, some of whom must have conveniently dismissed the remembrance of their own extraction, and early pursuits ! ! !—For the rest, they desired that bur dens not at all ensuring or promoting the improve ment of the parties affected in knowledge, res pectability, or fitness for their profession, might be imposed upon those who could pass the nota ble ordeal just mentioned. The names of places, and of on individual, that have petitioned against the certificated Conveyancers, are r l ate(! him much parade. - But who are the petitioners Do they comprise .any part of the Public at large ? Are they not all Attornies ?—lf the Public have been injured by the Conveyancers they must have dis covered the grievance, and they would be,the pro per parties to apply for redress. , But let it not be understood that the attornies are generally advo cates of this persecuting Measure. I know that many, and I am persuaded that most, if not all, of the truly respectable members of that profes sion disclaim and disapprove the proceeding. Among the attornies are very many open high not only in character and talent, but in principle, and who neither will nor can knowingly concur in any thing unjust. As to our opponents, if they are resolved again to bring the question before Par liament, there we will meet them, secure that before this high tribunal the rights of one hun dred will be as sacred as the interests of one thou sand, and that truth and justice will prevail. A CERTIFICATED CONVEYANCER. CoPratt TOKENS.—The following extract from an Act, passed on the 27th of June last, to pre vent the issuing and circilation of copper tokens, has been published in some of the Provincial Pa pers :—'° After the Ist of January, . 1818, no pieces of copper, or of any mixed metal composed partly of copper, of - whatever value the same may be, shall pass or circulate as a token for stioney : and every person who shall, alter. the said Ist of January, circulate or pass any such token, shall, for every token, whether such person shall have been concerned in the original issuing, or only the holder thereof, forfeit not less than 2s. nor more than 10s. at the discretion of the Justice; but nothing in this Act shall extend to prevent any person from presenting any such token for payment to the original issuer, or discharge such original issuer from his liability to pay the same ; also nothing in this Act shall b,e construed as af fecting any token issued by the Bank of England." —As this prohibition would scent to apply not only to tokens issued by private individuals or companies, but to every kind of copper token in circulation, we would remark, for the.informa tion of our readers, that there is a special clause in the same Act exempting the copper tokens issued by the Overseers of this town, and allow. ing . them to be issued and circulated until the 24th March, 1820, after which time they become subject to . the above provision.—Olirmingham Paper, Dec. 31) ANECDOTE OP THE LATE DUKE OF NoRTHUM BERLAND.—The Abbe DE PEItCIE, some time af ter the conlinencement of the Revolution in France,:was obliged to fly from his living in Nor mandy to this country. Soon after his arrival in London, he was hustled in New•street, Covent- Garden, and robbed of 20 guineas, which he had received but a few minutes before, at Sir Itouurr HERRIEs's. With the remainder of his little preperty he went to Bath, where it was soon expended. In this dilemma, his countrymen there reminded him, that he was related to the English PERcvs, and, as the Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND was at that tiate there, they advised him to apply to his Grace for relief. The Abbe immediately wrote to the Duke, who returnrd a polite answer, and requested a few days for investigation. In the mean time, his Grace wrote to Lott! HAR COURT, at whose house the Due D'llAttcouaT re sided, and inquired whether the Abbe was one of the DE l'Encres of Normindy ; soon after which he transmitted to his new cousin a gold box, with a Bank-note inclosed in it for 10001., and a ge neral invitation to his table, which was from that dzy open to bin). DO WELL'S ESTATE AGE"'"i-mEETING`of the CI: EDITORS .cif THoMAS DOWELL , deceased, late 14 iilu tiit- I r l; , ~~ • ,: l \'llitrch.lprl,in the Comity of Middlesex, Ship-Owner, mill he held on 'I:IIISRSI , .Air, the Isth day of .Tan nary next, at 12 o'clock precisely, at the LONDON TAVERN, in shomate-ctreet, "to take iitto vonsia.. , ration the AFFAIRS of the said THOMAS DOWELL, and a 1 ) ;;OPOSITION which will then he made By his EXECUTORS for the LI QUIDATION 6f his DEBTS, trhs "nit- a FINAL DISTRI BUYION of the ESTATE and EFFECTS of the said THOS. DOWELL - and on other Special Altai; s. Great I Vinchester-strect, NAT. ATCHESON, 3ist Dec. 1217. Solicitor to the Executors. TO CORRESPONDENTS. W e have been favoured with a long Article frOm a Profes- Sit;hal Correspondent in Bath, in reply to the Observations of Mr. JEssy. Fool', on the recent Calamity.—ln declining • its publication, we do not account ourselves as at all de serting our promised impartiality ; but we canna think any other answer admissible, as of rigid, than from one of the three Physicians to whom Mr. Foot's Observations were specially addressed, and on whom he has specially called fora reply.—We could notice also the strong personalities of our Correspondent's tole;--but the first is our para mount and decisive objection to the.insertion of his favour in THE SUN. N.B. The Manuscript is left at the Sun-Office, under cover, for the Author: - THEATRICAL. REGISTER. Performed Last Night. THEATRE. ROYAL, DRURY-LANE.—Lilliput. After which, The Falls of Clyde. - To which was added, Harlequin's Vision. THEATRE. ROYAL, c . OVENT-GARDEN.—(first ti n g e s , Retribu tion: Varau ci , Mr. Young; Ziuira, Miss O'Neill. After which, Harlequin Gulliver. MAILS. AuntyEn-1 Guernsey and Jersey, 1 Holland. DvE-- , 1 Dublin, 1 Waterford, 1 Holland, 2 Gottenburgh, 1 Lisbon, 1 Hamburg!). . PRICE OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT rwEi.vg 3 per Cent. Red.....80.411//6 India Bonds.. .:.. 975. 9515. pr. 4 per Cents 98N Each. Bills vi s. I 9s. pr. Bank L. Ann.. 2U 9-16ths Cons. for Acct. 81 iB2 811 bel WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TOMORROW. Alorning, 22 minutes after 10. I Evening, 47 minutes after 10. THE SUN. SOLEM QUIS DIOERF. FALSUM AUDEAT ? LONDON ; FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1818. The Paris Papeis of Tuesday last, which were due this morning, have not come to hand. This morning- we received New York Papers; but not of a later date than those of yesterday. (From the New York Evening Fbst of the 27th of Nov.) A Letter from Buenos Ayres, dated 10th Aug., received by a Gentleman in this \ City, says, That Gen. A aTroas has looclainied PUEYRRE DON, and three other Natives and Merchants of that place, Traitors, for sending a ship loaded with provisions to the Portuguese at• Monte Video, and thereby enabling them to make a stand against the Patriots, at the time when the scarcity of bread, at Buenos, Ayres, and the sufferings of the people there, were extreme. The character of a Traitor has been applied to Pun-2,11E1)0N from more than one quarter ; he was formerly de signated as such by all the Authorities which rule over the Eastern shores of the River Plate; to-wit—Entre Rios, Santa F 6, Corrientes, Pa raguay. Perhaps these public declarations may be explained by the ingenious author of the pamphlet lately published at Washington, enti tled " South America." The credit of the pre sent Administration at Buenos Ayres is such that Don MANUEL-AGIRRE, Commissioner ffoIIiPUEYR• REDON to the United States, has not dared to de fend his conduct, nor to answer the many crimes denounced against his patriotism and justice by the press of . this country and that of all Europe. It is not easy to discover' why the . Executive of the United States should wish to form a connec tion with a man who rules by military despotism. Of the 13 Provinces which compose the nominal State of La Plata, the four more important, Po toti, Chareus, La Paz, and CochaLainha, are in the •possession of the enemy ; and Monte Video, Rare Rios, Corrientes, Santa F 4, and Paraguay, call PUEYRREDON a traitor, and disobey his orders." • EARTHQUAKE! CALCUTTA, AUG. 15.—Forty distinct sho.cks of earthquakes are stated to have been felt at Hermit Bagh, between the 9 6th of May anti the 12 t h u l t i mo, which have caused great alarm at that station ; the first of these shocks is stated to have lasted several minutes ; it made every one leave the bungalows from fear. Several buildings were thrown down in the Pro vince, and also'in Gurwal. This visitation had not subsided at the latter date above-mentioned. THE FL:SM.-But little business has been done this morning —the Funds continue very heavy. The Commissioners gave for the first 50,000 Re duced 80i, the remainder they got at 801. Mo. ney is eery scarce.—Consols are 818 82. The long and excellent 'Article which we copied yesterday froM The Royal Corpiwall Gazette, u title which tho loyal spirit and good sense of the Paper well entitle it to assume, prevented our no ticing some observations in The Briti:h Press on tlic subject of - lio'zin's nequittitiL T! , L, ...•.~ .t 2 Paper, by anticipation, indeed, bus answer: BcitisltriTss fo;• us very sat kfactorilv, by reasouing and rittiooal reflections. Ilwvever, it becomes its to notice The Britiisil Press omit selves, because, though it is au Opposition Paper, it docs not appear to have the Jacobin eharavter, which seems invariably to mark all tie other Parry Prints, without exception. We shall at present merely confine ourselves to one passage in The British Press of ):esterday, which says that ' ia acquitting Mr. Ho xE , we have not the re motest doubt, that these thirty-six Gentle men expressed the seise of the Nation,—Honest juries takeQ front the body Of the People must speak the sense of the people." The British Press has been somewhat hasty and rash in draw ing its 'conclusions, and therefore we refer it to the PROVINCIAL JOURNALS, which my tend to en lighten its judgment, and perhaps induce him to change its opinions. The .Extract from The Royal Cornwall Gazette, which, from its high credit and popularity, may be supposed to speak the sentiments of the large, respectable, and opulent county in which it is immediately circulated, may possibly induce The British Press to change its opinions ; and if that Paper is not sufficient, we refer him to the Extracts from The Bull Packet and Greenock Advertiser, in our Paper of this day—the first Paper, of great 'respectahlity and wide circulation in another County, the largest in the kingdom ; and the other also of exteaSive circulation in a distant place. If these fail to convince him, we shall hope, at least, by success sive citatiotss 'from other Provincial Journals, to make him recant his rash assertion, that the S 11,• ries, in acquitting FloxE, " expressed the sense. of the Nation." We have done for the presto , . bat shall resume the subjeCt, because we will not suffer the people at large to be defamed by tire charge of giving an approving sanction to a bias. phemous perversion of 11oLY WRIT, and which, whatever the defendant might alledge as to his intention, was, in its effect, calculated to throw ridicule on the purest Religirm communicated by the Divine Being, for our happiness here and our salvation hereafter. Extract of a Letter from Kingston, (Jamaica) &tied iVovember 14 " Arrived here yesterday an,s:tip from Laguira, having fled from the embargo thit was laid at that port, awl gives the following information It was expected an emigration would immediately take place ; the cati:e. of the Patriots watt very prosperous ; a formidable army had marched iti Valencia front hence ; the Spaniard s were getting away, and removing all their valuables : All will Inlet at Barcelona and Cumana, which still re mained in possession of BouvAa. Mortn,Lo hail pillaged Caraccas, and fled to Lagtiira, which he was speedily obliged to evacuate. This vessel brought 60,000 dollars in cash, and several se-. roons of indigo, the property of Spaniards who had fled from Laguira ; the Captain also states, that the account of the defeat of General Past, whiCh appeared in the Curacoa Couranl , was with out the least foundation ; on the contrary, he %Val completely victorious. This ship lett 'Lagttira ott the 28th of October. Another vessel had al:o arrived ikt Kingston front Porto Cabello, the CKP tain t,f which was the hearer of accounts very tru favourable to the Royal Cause." CORN EXCUANGE, J. 2.—We have a consi derable quantity of Grain kft over from bite ar rivals, and a large supply is expected oh Monday, consequently there was very few sales made this morning, and the prices. of fine Wheat and Oats were the same RS on Monday ; but there Was no demand for inferior sorts. Fine Malting Harley supports its price; but inferior as well as Malt is very dull. In Peas and Beans there is no altera• tion. A 'Hamburg]) Mail contains a document, signal by the King of Sweden, on the events which havc taken place since the last Diet, and on the generat state and prospects .of the kingdom. By this it appears, t kit a Treaty of Commerce has been concluded between Swede n and the United States, and a Treaty with Russia respecting the commercial relations bet%reen Sweden and Finland, her for mer province. Prussia has made considerable progress in paying tip the sums agreed upon as an indemnity to Sweden for the loss of Pomerania.. Th e S,vedish revenue of customs ltas improved, anti her ; . oreign debt has every where been dis charged or dint;nislied. WINDSOR, DEC. 31.--Tuesday her MAJESTY' visited the KING, and afterwards took an airing through Slough, Dutcher, Bcc. accompanied by . the PRINCESSES. The same day the Duke of CLArtElicrt arrived 011 a visit to his Royal Mother. In the evening her MAJESTY had a select party at the Castle. The Duke of CLARENCE left us to. day for Bushey. BRIGHTON, DEC. 3l.—This afternoon the PLINCE REGENT, accompanied by the Duke of Vol - h, and sevural of the Nobility at the Pavilion. took their ride in the stables for upwards Of an hour. This (kr Mr. LEACH, the elected price_ .Chancellor, had the honour of Knighthood con. !erred upon him by the PRINCE REGENT. Si, 1 - IENIty HALvottp left :own On Wednesdry night, for Windsor, hot the circular letter of yes terdily does not mention the illness of any of time Royal Family. The wood Monthly Report of the King's Physicians will be ... made to the Council to-morrow.